Category: Monthly Wrap Up

Another month gone by – insane! I still am not entirely sure how on earth we have finished the first quarter of 2019. Time flies! Anyhoo … March was an ok reading month for me. I was able to finish 5 books and I DNF’d one. (And I’m still frustrated with Goodreads because it’s going to count my totals wrong this year – the John Adams book I finished this month is a two-book series – TWO books – Goodreads counts it as one. NO! Two books = two books. Ugh. Rant over.) Anyway, here’s what I read in March:

Okay, so when I went back I realized that I never posted a review of And Then There Were None … oops! Long story short – I really enjoyed it! Definitely recommend that one! Also, look for my review of 15th Affair later this week. Best book this month? Probably The Hunting Party. The DNF? The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. It was the March selection for the Modern Mrs. Darcy book club. I read to page 83 and then sent it back to the library. It just didn’t work for me. I didn’t like the characters and I didn’t really care for the storyline, I spent a week reading those 83 pages and decided that it wasn’t worth “toughing it out” and sent it back with no regrets.

Moving on … I wasn’t very active here on the blog this month, I just didn’t have much drive to get onto the computer to be honest. But here’s what I did post (other than the reviews which are linked to the book covers:

• Mailbox Monday: March 4 | March 11

Off the blog March passed relatively uneventfully. I did participate in a 5K with my running buddy on St. Patrick’s Day. My overall time was right in line with where I usually am for 3 miles, however my first mile I did have my best time: 14:59! Woo! I run at a snail’s pace, but I don’t really care – I’m still getting out there and staying active. I got new running shoes this month too! They’re awesome! I hadn’t realized how worn out my previous pair were until I slipped the new ones on. We got the kids signed up for t-ball and baseball – they start practices this week. This is Katelyn’s first year playing and she’s so excited! This is Garrett’s 4th season, so he knows the routine. Of course I’m not really looking forward to the 3-4 days at the ball fields, but the kids enjoy it so that makes me happy. I saw two movies in the theater this month: I took Garrett to see How to Train Your Dragon (cute!) and then Nathan and I went and saw Captain Marvel (good).

Well, I think that’s about all I’ve got for now. Hopefully I can get back into my groove with posting and be a little more active around here.

Happy reading!

Well, February ended up being a slightly better reading month than January did (who on earth starts a brand new year in a reading slump?! UGH!) Here’s what I read in February:

So there’s a visual of my books read in February. Meet Me at the Museum was the February selection for the Modern Mrs. Darcy book club – it is an epistolary novel, and way outside my comfort zone, but it somewhat surprised me. I can’t say that I loved it, but I finished it and while not necessarily my cup of tea it was a well-written book. I finally got my way through John Adams. Whew. That was a chunky book, and while extremely well-written the writing style was not necessarily what I was looking for at the time. My favorite this month, hands down, was definitely Before She Knew Him. Be on the lookout for my review of that one this upcoming Thursday!

Here’s what you may have missed last month:

• Mailbox Monday: Feb. 4 | Feb. 11 | Feb. 18
• Top Ten Tuesday: Books I LOVED with fewer than 2000 Goodreads ratings
• First Chapter/First Paragraph: Feb. 26

Let’s see … on the personal side of things. Hm. We were able to see two movies in the theater this month, Aquaman and Glass. Both were good in their own way. As far as Aquaman is concerned, it was a decent adventure movie – but while I can appreciate that Jason Mamoa is a good-looking guy, I’m not sure I understand the hype about him right now. All my mom friends are obsessed. Glass was a good movie, but a little confusing to me at times. I never saw the two movies before it in the “trilogy” so that may have impacted my overall thoughts on the movie. My weekly running partner and I have signed up for a 5K on St. Patrick’s Day. Eek. I’m not really “ready” Ok, I can’t really say that. We’ve been running every week together and I’m consistently doing 3.5-4 miles with her every Sunday, but the whole idea of a “race” is getting into my head again. But it benefits the American Cancer Society, and all finishers get a really cool medal that is also a bottle opener (hey – I’m all about the race swag!). I don’t really know what else to mention here. So I suppose until next month –

Happy reading!

Only I would start January in a reading slump. It is what it is, but I only finished 4 books last month. Not exactly the start to the year I was hoping for, but 4 is always better than none. Anyhoo, here’s what I read:

As always, clicking on the covers will take you to my reviews. So even though I only finished 4 books, overall I had a good reading month. I had a hard time deciding which was my “best” book for the month; these were all pretty much solid 3 star books for me. Injustice for All was probably the strongest.

To recap what happened here on the blog:

• Reviewed On the Same Page
• Mailbox Monday: January 7 | January 14 | January 28
• First Chapter/First Paragraph: January 8 | January 15 | January 22
• Posted about my reading slump 😦
• Top 5 Wednesday: January 30

We had a good month personally. We went down to Nashville to see Metallica in concert. We’ve seen them once before, at Busch Stadium a couple of years ago, and to be honest it was absolutely miserable … it poured down rain pretty much the entire evening and was just a total bust. It also doesn’t help that Metallica isn’t necessarily my cup of tea in music anyway. However, it was a much better concert in Nashville. Besides, I got to check out McKay’s Used Books for the first time (I’m in love!)

Well that’s about all I’ve got for today. Hopefully February will be a stronger reading month for me 🙂

Happy reading!

Holy moly, another month gone! I swear 2018 has flown by, it’s unreal! To think that it’s November is insane! And now the holidays are upon us…. ugh! I’m so not ready, ha! Anyway, I had a good reading month for October, but I wasn’t nearly as active here on the blog as I had liked to be. I just didn’t find myself on the computer as much as I would have preferred, but I was still reading so it’s ok 🙂

The Yard would probably be my favorite, with An Imperfect God being a really close second (for a non-fiction read that was a really good book!)

Other than book reviews, I only posted one thing on the blog this month:

• First Chapter/First Paragraph: Oct. 23

Told you I was pretty quiet around here 😦 Hopefully November can get back on track for me. I Just found myself reading more than turning on the computer, which is a good thing… but I still prefer to be a little more present around here.

Off the blog I had a busy month. Between me and my children we spent an entire week at home sick. That was no fun … plus it put me really behind at work. And of course October is generally a pretty busy time at my work. I’m still running, in fact I’m doing a little bit better than I have been. I’m pretty close to figuring out the whole breathing thing, lol! It definitely makes it a lot easier 😀 We joined a local gym so I could access the treadmills. Ugh. That’s got to be the worst running ever… I definitely prefer to run outside! But our winters can be pretty unpredictable, so I’ll probably need to utilize the treadmills during the winter months to keep in shape until spring.

I’m looking forward to November. I hope to have another great reading month; I’m already off to a good start, having finished my first book yesterday! Hopefully I can be a little more active here than I was in October…. but as long as I keep reading it’ll be fine 🙂

Until next month … happy reading!

Well, I’m super late getting this wrap up posted … sorry about that! The month of October started out with Garrett coming down with a fever and some congestion and then before you know it … I managed to come down with it too. I’m still fighting the congestion, but at least I feel like powering on my computer today, so I suppose I’m somewhat on the mend. Anywhoo… on to book stuff.

I was able to read 6 books in the month of September. While not my best, still an awesome month with some really great books! Here’s what I read (clicking on the images will take you to my review):

My favorite book this month is probably One Perfect Lie. It starts out with a bang and didn’t let up until the very end for me! I thoroughly enjoyed it!! I don’t think I really had a disappointing book this month, they were all pretty good!

To briefly recap what other bookish goodies posted on the blog:

• August Wrap Up
• Reviews of Stillhouse Lake, Ten Big Ones, and Burn from my August reads
• Mailbox Monday: Sept. 3 | Sept. 10
• Top Ten Tuesday: Sept. 18
• First Chapter/First Paragraph: Sept. 25
• An update to my presidential reading challenge

As I stated in my August update, I was signed up for my first 5K the first week of September. I was super nervous about it, but I finished and I’m stoked that I finished it! (And I wasn’t last!!) It was not the greatest conditions, it was a night run … and it poured down rain on us. But I had a really awesome time! I ran it with a co-worker who runs marathons (I told him he didn’t have to stay with me, he could run on… but he insisted on going at my pace … which is a snail’s, lol) and my sister-in-law (who did run on her own ahead of us). My SIL actually won 2nd place in her age group! So she did great! All in all it was a really good time and I definitely enjoyed it. I don’t think I’ll make it a really big habit of doing structured 5Ks, but I’ve incorporated one “long run” aka 3.10 mile run every week in my routine. Good times for sure! I’m never going to be a marathon runner (and I really don’t want to…), but I do enjoy being a recreational runner!

Let’s see, what else. Katelyn started pre-school this month. I’m still in denial that my baby will be in kindergarten in two short years … it’s not possible! But then I remember that I get to sleep a full night’s sleep and I no longer have to buy diapers and that pretty well takes care of any desire of another baby 😀

Some other crappy family stuff happened at the end of the month. More stupid drama. It’s almost to the point of ridiculousness. I’m so over it. I am a grown ass woman, I do not need the drama that a certain family member makes. It’s stupid and I’m tired of it. She’s upset with my husband and yet she took it out on me! Please. Be an adult and go to the person your “issue” is with … oh, wait! That would be too grown up for you to do, so that’s not likely to happen. Ridiculous. Especially if she actually thought I would take her side over my husbands… which I would if the circumstances warranted it, but this most certainly did not. Stupid, childish petty bullshit that I don’t have time for anymore. It’s actually been kind of nice not to have to listen to her complaints in over a week. I’m kind of starting to realize how all-consuming her problems were becoming to ME because I was having to listen to it. ::end rant::.

Anyway … not that you guys cared about any of that, but it sure felt good to get it off my chest. (She doesn’t know about this blog, so I feel free to briefly mention it). So, I think that’s about it. I’ve got a couple of reviews coming in the upcoming week, so I sure hope you’ll stop back by for those. Until next time…

Happy reading!!

August was an amazing reading month for me! I was able to read 8 books … EIGHT! I can’t tell you the last time I read 8 books in one month, but it’s for sure been awhile. Of course it didn’t hurt that the books I read this month were all pretty well fast-paced thrillers that I enjoyed. Here’s what I read last month (all but the last three book covers will take you to my reviews… look for the other reviews in the coming weeks):

I don’t think I can even choose one favorite for the month … it’s probably a tie between The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and The Last Time I Lied. They were completely different books, but they both held my interest and intrigued me the entire time. I was slightly disappointed by An American Marriage, it wasn’t a bad book just not what I was expecting or hoping it would be.

Here’s a quick round-up of what was posted here on the blog in August:

• July’s Wrap Up
• Mailbox Monday: Aug. 6|Aug. 20| Aug. 27
• First Chapter/First Paragraph: Aug. 7|Aug. 14|Aug. 21

August was a good month for us. Garrett started back to school, 1st grade! I’m still a little bit in denial about that. He’s got a wonderful teacher and he’s already doing great! But it’s kind of scary … they have tests and nightly homework! I don’t remember having that kind of stuff in 1st grade!

Katelyn starts preschool next week. My baby is growing up! 😥

We had a quick trip out to Vegas at the beginning of August. We had tickets to see Shania Twain and goodness did she put on an amazing show! Loved every single minute of it! Definitely worth the 48-hour whirlwind trip! We also played Top Golf while we were out there …crazy expensive, but a lot of fun!

I spent entirely too much money and purchased LADY GAGA tickets in Vegas next year! 😀 She’s got a residency out there and I’m stoked to have tickets for it! They were crazy expensive, but I don’t care … I’m so excited!

That’s about it for what happened this month … I’ve got my first 5K next week and I am so NOT at all ready… eek! It’s going to be ugly, lol. I did go to a running seminar and got some good motivation there. I’m never going to have a 10 minute mile or be an Olympic athlete … I just want to keep myself in shape and have some time to myself a few times a week. If it takes me an hour to “run” that 5K, who cares? It’s better than if I was sitting on my couch that night instead….

Well, I think that’s about all I have for today … be on the lookout for a few new reviews coming from last month’s reads.

Happy reading!!

Well … my reading definitely picked up this month! Of course awesome selections definitely helped 🙂 Here’s what I read:

Overall a really good month! Some good books in there!! As usual, clicking on the book cover will take you to my review, with the exception of I’ll Be Your Blue Sky, that’ll post next week. … the best book of the month is a three-way tie between Our Kind of Cruelty, I’ll Be Your Blue Sky, and What Remains of Her.

Here’s a quick round up of what all was posted on the blog in July:

• June’s Wrap Up
• First Chapter/First Paragraph: July 3 | July 10 | July 17 | July 24 | July 31
• Review of The Widows from Malabar Hill
• Mailbox Monday: July 9 

July was a very good month. I celebrated my birthday :D. I also received the Garmin watch I had been coveting for running! It’s really cool! I also received an Instant Pot. I haven’t tried it out yet, but I’m looking forward to it!

We got a couple of date nights. The first we just stayed at home and chilled. It was kind of spur of the moment and to be honest we didn’t really feel like doing much. The second one we had tickets for the Kenny Chesney concert at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Back in 2002 Kenny Chesney was my first concert! I was really looking forward to seeing him again! Overall he still puts on a good show … but Thomas Rhett was really the star of the night! He’s amazing! I would see him again in a heartbeat!! We stayed the night up there and then spent most of Sunday hitting all the malls. I got a new purse and some shirts with my birthday money. We had a really nice time, it was nice to be able to shop and take our time … and not wrangle children 🙂

Garrett did a basketball camp this month. I’m not sure he’ll ever be a basketball star (he’s not likely to be very tall) but he was really bummed when I didn’t sign him up for basketball season back in January, so I figured I could send him to the camp to see if it’s something he’s interested in. He seemed to like it. I’m still in denial that summer is almost over! A week and a half until he goes back … for FIRST GRADE! That seems so old 😥 He’s super ready though … he loves school. Although he may not love school after he finds out how much work 1st grade is in comparison to kindergarten. Although I don’t know, his kindergarten teacher was much more work oriented than most of the other kindergarten teachers were. Which was a good thing for my child, ha!

Well that’s about all I’ve got. By the time you read this we’ll be in Las Vegas for a quick weekend getaway. We love Vegas (we got married out there!) and try to get back there at least once a year. We have tickets to see Shania Twain. It’s going to be a very quick trip since Nathan changed jobs we had to change our flights and shorten the trip. But it’s ok… you don’t sleep in Vegas anyway 🙂 And then it’ll be time to settle back into the school routine. We definitely thrived on that routine; summer has us all a little out of whack.

Anyway .. until next time, happy reading!

June was a much better month … a lot more relaxed for sure! And after the craziness that May brought I was definitely glad for a break 🙂 Plus we’re getting super close to my birthday 😀

My reading was decent, I didn’t read as many books as I wanted to, but I read two chunkier than normal books. But the quality of my reading was spot on this month!!

What I finished in June [clicking on the covers will take you to my review; except for Widows… that will post in the coming days]:

See? A great reading month quality wise! I read The Great Alone for MMD’s June book club selection – I really loved it! Such a wonderful book with some pretty serious stuff – it made for great discussion in the book club’s forums. Jar of Hearts was an impulse NetGalley request that ended up being a home run! Assassin was a good book just a tad bit too long for my tastes. The Widows of Malabar Hill is the July selection on MMD’s book club. I had to use the interloan library request at my local library to receive it from an area library and it ended up coming in a lot faster than I had anticipated (I’d never used that feature before and didn’t know how long processing would take – it’s a lot faster than I anticipated!) so I read it early for book club since I didn’t want to keep it out too terribly long.  It was a good book, a historical mystery set in 1920s Bombay and I definitely enjoyed it more than I anticipated!!

Here’s a round up of what was posted on the blog in June:

• May’s wrap up
• Reviews of two May reads: A Risk Worth Taking and NYPD Red 2
• Mailbox Monday: June 11
• First Chapter/First Paragraph: June 12 | June 19 | June 26

I didn’t really post as much as I had wanted to, just enough to keep ahead of myself in reviews and some fillers. I feel like I’m in such a rut, but at the same time I’m glad that I’ve established a somewhat steady schedule. I know I sometimes feel as if it’s the same stuff every single week (and it is … just with different books featured), but it’s hard to keep up with the blog at times. 😦

I don’t think I’ve shared anything here about the fitness journey I’ve embarked on. I’ve began running. I’m doing Couch 2 5K. … slowly! Ha! In reality I can probably walk faster than I run. But for the most part I’m enjoying it. It’s hard though… I’ve never been a runner, ever, so those early weeks were hard. I’m on week 8 of the program and while I can’t say it’s any easier, I haven’t given it up yet. Not even after I fell down on the sidewalk and banged up my knee pretty badly. So that must be saying something. It also doesn’t hurt that I’m really enjoying the changes in my body. I haven’t lost much weight, but I’ve definitely lost inches and my legs are not as jiggly 😀 I’ve signed up to do a 5K in my town in September. I may be ready by then, ha! We’ll see. My longterm goal is to eventually run the Iron Mom Half Marathon in Paducah …. but I’ve been running for 8 weeks and I haven’t ever gone 3 miles in 30-35 minutes … so it may take me years to build up to 13 miles!

We got one date night this month …. Nathan cooked us some steaks at home and then we went to see Solo …. while the movie was overall good it sure did have a slow-as-molasses beginning.

We’ve survived the first month of Garrett’s summer break. He’s done Vacation Bible School and a Lego Camp. In July I think we’ll sign him up for a basketball camp. Other than that I’m not sure what we’ll do. I didn’t really want to put him in full-time care anywhere, so we’ve been figuring it out as we go. Luckily we have family close by so they’ve been helping out a lot. And I have the ability to work from home as well. That definitely makes a big difference.

I think that’s about all I’ve got for now … until next month, happy reading 🙂

Well I’m a couple of days late… but I’ve been totally wrapped up in finishing up The Great Alone … suffice it to say I LOVED it! Look for my review of it sometime next week 🙂

Here’s what I finished in May:

I only just now realized that I never wrote my review for NYPD Red 2 … oops?! I guess look for that in the next few days too 😉 I had a good month of reading, but none of these books really stand out as “WOW” books to me… What I Saw and How I Lied and What Doesn’t Kill Her were both good books, but nothing that’s really going to stick with me. [I’m still in book hangover mode from The Great Alone – I seriously cannot WAIT to put my feelings together in a review!] My review of A Risk Worth Taking will post tomorrow, so be on the lookout for that!

Anywhoo …. here’s what was on the blog in May:

• I posted my review of Hiding … such a twisty book!
• Mailbox Monday: May 7 | May 14 
• First Chapter/First Paragraph: May 8 | May 15 | May 22
• Life Updates

I didn’t realize that I went completely quiet on the blog the last week in May. But our lives kind of got turned upside down for a little bit 🙂 My longtime readers may remember that when we relocated back home about 3.5 years ago my husband took a job with my family’s concrete company. Well. Turns out it wasn’t a good fit for him. 😦 This past Friday he started his new job with IDOT (Illinois Dept. of Transportation). He’s back doing engineering work and he’s already thrilled. … plus his hours are going to be 7am-3:30pm, you don’t get much better than that! No more Saturday morning work, no more crazy early mornings or late evenings at work. It’s going to be such a nice change for all of us as a family. There are absolutely no hard feelings with my family for him leaving the company, which was my biggest concern. Everyone is just happy that he’s happy again – it’s hard to get up every day and go to a job you really don’t like.

We also had to buy a new car this week. Ugh. He had been extremely lucky and had been provided a company vehicle. Obviously with him leaving the company, we were going to be without a personal vehicle for him. So he went and bought a new Mustang. Totally and ridiculously inappropriate for a 33-year-old man with two children still in car seats, but I wasn’t going to argue with him over it. He’s been drooling over these things for the last 2 years, it was just easier to let him have what he wanted rather than buy him something he potentially hated. It’s a sharp car and it’s super nice … just not very family friendly. Oh well. We usually take my SUV everywhere anyway, but still… I don’t have to drive it every day so whatever.

We only got one date night this month, and it was in conjunction with the day we bought his car … so we didn’t really want to spend too much money, ha! So we just went out to dinner and came home and watched a movie. It was nice since it had been a month since we had any alone time together.

I’m so glad May is over. It was an absolutely insane month. We were crazy busy! I’m ready to enjoy the summer months 🙂 I’m also still in complete and total denial that Garrett has finished kindergarten. I’m not entirely sure where the school year went …

Well I think that’s all I’ve got for now. I’ve got a few reviews to get scheduled, so hopefully I won’t go quiet for another week 🙂

Have a good upcoming week and happy reading!